Nice, France - Russia and the United States should both refrain from siting any new weapons systems in Europe before a major summit of European and North American powers in June or July 2009, the French and Russian presidents said on Friday.

The 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe should meet in June or July 2009, and "until then, please let's have no more talk about the deployment of missiles or anti-missile protection systems," French President Nicolas Sarkozy, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, said.

Nice, France - The European Union and Russia are set to re-launch on December 2 talks on a strategic treaty which EU leaders froze in protest at Russia's August invasion of Georgia, officials said Friday.

The two sides' top negotiators are due to hold a fresh round of talks on December 2 in Brussels, diplomatic sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the fringes of an EU-Russia summit in the French resort town of Nice.

Nice, France - On Friday, European Union and Russian leaders agreed to re-launch negotiations on a "new EU-Russia agreement" on December 2, with expert meetings due on November 21-22.

The new deal is meant to replace an earlier Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) agreed for 10 years with Boris Yeltsin's Russia in 1997.

The PCA still governs EU-Russia relations, since EU leaders decided to freeze talks on the new deal on September 1 in protest at Russia's August invasion of Georgia.

Nice, France - Russia supports the idea of holding a summit of the world's greatest powers in 101 days' time to debate the reform of the global financial system, a Kremlin official said Friday.

"As I understand it, we support" a proposal from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to hold a summit of the world's 20 greatest powers 100 days after a similar meeting planned in Washington on Saturday, Natalia Timakova, spokeswoman of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told journalists at an EU-Russia summit in Nice, France.

Paris - Because of the crisis in the auto market, global sales for French car maker Renault plunged in October, forcing it to reduce its production levels, the company said on Friday.

The three makes produced by Renault - Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung - sold 188,116 vehicles last month around the world, down 14.1 per cent compared to October 2007.

In Europe alone, sales were off by 16 per cent, Renault said in a statement.

Because of slumping sales, Renault said it would reduce its production levels so that its stock of vehicles at the end of 2008 will be similar to what it was at the end of last year.

Nice, France - The global financial crisis and concerns over Russian and US plans to site missiles in Europe looked set to top the agenda on Friday as Russian and European Union leaders met in the French resort of Nice.

With a meeting of the world's greatest powers in Washington on the financial crisis just 24 hours away, the summit's host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and his guest, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, are expected to spend much of their time discussing a joint approach to solving the world's financial problems.